Friday, January 22

As if Raj Thackeray was not nuisance enough, the Congress government in Maharashtra has decided to allow only cabbies with 15 years of domicile proof to drive! The justification is a 1987 law with domicile and local language requirements. Of course, the political calculations are not lost on even the dumbest of persons!

It is not difficult to understand the logic behind the 1987 law assuming domicile and language as guarantees of a driver's knowledge of the roads he is driving on. You come to know the city gradually after you have lived there for a while. But that was the technological stone-age. Now we have the GPS! and other mapping/ direction providing devices. They might not be as efficient in India as yet, but the potential exists. It is only a matter of time before someone comes up with a customized GPS or mapping system for Indian cities and roads. If the government was so concerned about taxi commuters reaching the right destinations, they could have initiated the creation of such a system for Mumbai. Why did it have to regress to some old law? Why not come up with a new progressive, forward-looking policy that utilizes the technological resources available? If that was too much of a pain, a simpler solution such as requiring drivers to ace a city-specific knowledge test would have helped. Or maybe they could have asked the taxi drivers' association to have orientation and training workshops for new drivers. Even requiring proof of such training before giving out licenses would have been a better option!

Reacting to the drama of withdrawing the language specification, Raj Thackeray asked if Maharashtra had opened a "dharmashala." Definitely not! If it had, the north-Indians and Biharis would be welcome guests living for free. But these north-Indians do not live on charity. They work hard to earn their living and pay their dues to the city. If they send some money back to their hometowns, that is none of Thackeray's business. That is their money, and they are free to do what they like with it. How would he like if all remittances from the NRIs (that add significantly to India's economy and middle class prosperity) stopped? Do his Marathi people have the capacity to generate that amount of wealth for the country? How would he like it if someone attacked and tried to throw out the scores of Marathi people living in many cities of the United States?

Instead of divisive politics, it would help Thackeray more to actually come up with new ideas for job creation. If he is really concerned about the Marathi people's employment, he should think of promoting entrepreneurship or sustainable employment policy. His politics and agenda are only creating a bad image for the Marathi people, and ruining their chances of employment in other states. If he were really concerned, he would have been mindful of these things too.

Rather than starting a dharmashala for the norht-Indians, the Marathi people seemed to have done so for Thackeray and his cronies. Instead of working and contributing to society, they are living off the charity of the Marathi people and being a nuisance in return. If anyone deserves to be thrown out, its them!